CSE organised a unique event on 26th September 2013 at Jacranda Hall, India Habitat Centre to celebrate positive action on sustainable mobility in Indian cities. The event engaged in dialogue with changemakers from different cities of India who made a difference to mobility and air quality related concerns. This occasion was to acknowledge positive action to create policy stake in change and deepen public understanding of what is needed to move forward.

Buses provide the bulk of public transport services in many Indian cities. Its share in daily travel in bigger cities can be as high as 40-60 per cent. Cities are looking at bus transport reforms to reduce auto mobile dependence, congestion, and pollution. Cities like Delhi are setting such high targets as 80 per cent public transport share by 2020, but such a goal can be met only if bus transport is scaled up.

CSE’s clean air and urban mobility team organized a workshop ‘Our Right of Way: Walk and Cycle’ in New Delhi on March 22, 2012. This discussion forum included participants from all the key organsiations, stakeholders, civil society representatives, policy makers bicycle industries, cycle clubs and regulators. All witnessed the different source of knowledge at one go from different stakeholders.

Parking pricing strategies are essential tools for bringing about a balance in the modal split between private vehicles and the public transport by influencing the traveller’s choice. High congestion levels are due to the travellers’ preference for the private mode of transport. Therefore, in order to bring about a better modal split balance, it becomes imperative to improve the public transit quality and also to charge a fee in the form of congestion fee or parking fee in order to check the growing congestion.

Air pollution is the fifth largest killer and seventh biggest illness burden in India as estimated by the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) report. The speed at which urban air pollution is growing across our cities is alarming. Severe particulate pollution and newer pollutants like nitrogen oxides, ozone and air toxics are worsening the public health challenge. Vehicles are a special challenge as these are the fastest growing sources of air pollution.

Factsheets

1. Why buses?
Buses will play a crucial role in the mobility transition in the big and medium rung cities. Cities need well managed, well organised modern buses that deliver efficient public transport services at affordable rates.Read more

There is finally some respite for cycle rickshaws from the Delhi High Court. Recently the chief justice bench while hearing a petition on lifting of ban on cycle rickshaws on the main arteries of Delhi asked the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) to submit an action plan for cycle rickshaws in the city.

The Union Ministry of Urban Development has now evolved a system for evaluating urban transport services in cities across India. All cities covered by the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) have been advised to benchmark their level of services for various parameters specified by the ministry.

Policy & Legislation

Kill. The ultimate scalpel operation as the final sign of life ebbs away. Let it die, rather than drag a colossal waste. We were probably expecting this to happen. Not just to this state-owned bus transit undertaking in India’s largest state -- Madhya Pradesh -- but to numerous other undertakings that have state governments as their bosses.

We never expected public transport to catch the political imagination in the car maniacal city of Delhi. So we were pleasantly surprised by the recent budget of the Delhi government. The transport sector has hogged the biggest pie of the total budgetary allocation – nearly one-fourth of the total plan outlay.

Work Overview

The biggest challenge that confronts cities today is the intractable problem of automobile dependence. As the automobile dependence continues to grow, it is adversely affecting the quality of urban life. Congestion, unsafe roads and pollution remain their bane. Unless accompanied by policies to restrict the growth in car and motorised two-wheeler travel, cities will run hard only to stand still.

Latest Clippings

An efficient public transport system and pedestrian-friendly roads could be the ideal way out of the city's parking mess, but for now what Pune needs are immediate solutions and the civic body's attention

Products

CSE's latest book in its Right to Clean Air Campaign series. We have more roads and flyovers than ever before to address our transportation worries. But our cities continue to be gridlocked, with traffic at a virtual standstill as private vehicles hugely outnumber our public transport options. It is time to set new terms of action, make our cities more walkable, review our pollution and congestion control strategies…

State authorities send notices to 103 mines
Odisha's department of steel and mines has slapped a fine of Rs 67,900 crore on companies operating 103 mines in the Koira and Joda mining circles of Sundargarh and Keonjhar districts, respectively for mining more mineral than permitted.